TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 4:12-19
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. - Ephesians 6:4
TODAY IN THE WORD
The church has benefited in many ways from the movement to challenge and to equip Christian men to be faithful in every area of life. For example, countless Christian fathers are now living with a conscious, top-priority commitment to be godly fathers, who love and lead their families according to the principles of God’s Word.

One of a dad’s primary responsibilities is to lead his children by example. Our Father’s Day passage suggests one way a father can set a godly example for his family and even other believers--although you probably won’t find this item on too many lists of preferred ways to lead by example. Here it is: show others how to “suffer as a Christian” (v. 16) in the name of and for the sake of Christ.

Of course, Peter wasn’t writing just to fathers, but to the whole church. His instruction, however, has a strong appeal for those in places of spiritual and human leadership, including Christian dads. Indeed, all mature believers can accept painful trials without losing heart or compromising their commitment to Christ.

We may wish the New Testament didn’t have so much to say about the important, even necessary, place of suffering in the Christian life. But these are God’s shaping and refining tools, and a way He disciples His children. That’s one reason Peter says we shouldn’t be surprised when the world and the devil turn up the pressure.

We can assume that some of Peter’s readers came from godless backgrounds, judging from his references in this letter to the difference between suffering for Christ and being punished for doing wrong. Thus Peter was careful to make clear that it’s believers’ participation in the Savior’s sufferings that brings glory and blessing.

Note how Peter linked hardships with such words as “glory,” “rejoicing,” and “blessing.” There is a reward for us when we react to suffering with Christ-like faith. We’re called to a life of deeply ingrained joy that accepts trials as part of God’s fatherly disciplinary love.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
“It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God,” Peter wrote. God is always faithful to discipline His children. And godly fathers know about the importance of discipline, both in shaping children’s character and expressing a father’s love. If you have been blessed with a godly father, thank him today. And if you didn’t have such an earthly father, you can turn to God as the most loving, faithful Father. Let’s pray that God will give fathers the wisdom they need to lead their families with godly discipline and unshakeable love.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 5:1-7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
After Franklin Roosevelt was afflicted with polio in 1921, he worked hard to regain the use of his legs. But he was never again able to walk without the aid of braces and canes. Friends and associates said Roosevelt handled his handicap with grace and good humor. One friend said that Roosevelt “had accepted the ultimate humility which comes from being helped physically.”

We can learn a lesson today from the late president’s reaction to his disability. It’s hard to ask for help, and it’s even harder to accept the fact that we need help every day of our lives. It takes “ultimate humility” to admit that we can’t make it on our own--but the people who recognize their need are the ones who get the help they need.

Spiritually, we’re in the same situation that Franklin Roosevelt was in physically. We are dependent, and 1 Peter urges us to humbly confess our need to God and to receive His help.

Suffering has a way of making us aware of our complete dependence upon God, as it must have done for Peter’s audience. But that’s the place where God wants us to be, because it’s at our point of weakness that His power takes over (see 2 Cor. 12:9). One way the Lord meets our need is through gifted and compassionate spiritual leaders who, like Peter, serve as shepherds under the “Great Shepherd,” Jesus Christ.

Peter wrote with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to serve the Lord as a shepherd of His people. Three motives disqualify a person from leadership: compulsion, a sense that “I must do this even though I don’t really want to” cash, a desire to get wealthy at the expense of the flock; and command, the desire to boss people around and feel important.

These negative motives are offset by positive ones: a willingness to be used, an eagerness to serve, and leadership by example rather than barking out orders. Peter had developed these qualities of spiritual leadership under Jesus’ ministry and in the decades that followed.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The final verse of today’s reading is a great way to begin a new week of work and summer activities.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 5:8-14
Be selfcontrolled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. - 1 Peter 5:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
During the Vietnam War, a group of army recruits was learning about weapons. As they handled new M16 rifles while sitting in the safety of the classroom, the recruits weren’t taking the instruction very seriously. Suddenly, the drill sergeant slammed his fist on the table and shouted, “Gentlemen, I survived a tour of duty in Viet-nam, and knowing how to use my weapon was one reason I made it. Now it’s your turn.” The startled recruits gulped, fell silent, and began paying attention as the sergeant continued his demonstration.

When you’re facing a powerful enemy, there’s nothing like having someone who can stand up and say, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been in the battle. Let me tell you how you can defeat the enemy.” That’s what Peter was doing for his readers.

Remember that the recipients of this letter were living in various provinces throughout Asia Minor (1 Peter 1:1)--the devil’s “battlefield,” if you will. Peter knew that Satan was a dangerous enemy bent on destroying believers, and the apostle had the spiritual scars to prove it. We need to read Peter’s teaching against the backdrop of his own failure to humble himself before God and to resist Satan when he denied Jesus three times.

But while we cannot afford to underestimate the devil’s power, the Bible teaches that the only influence he has in our lives is the influence we allow him to have. When we are on guard against his tricks and determined to resist him in God’s strength, Satan is a toothless lion.

One of the weapons the devil uses to try to break believers down is persecution. This was happening to Christians in the Roman Empire of Peter’s day. But these Christians could be victorious, and so can we, because we serve “the God of all grace” (v. 10). He not only helps us stand, but He will bring the suffering to an end after “a little while” and will replace it with “eternal glory.”
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
All of us want to be “strong, firm and steadfast” in our faith (v. 10).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:1-4
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. - 2 Peter 1:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
Dr. Kenneth Gangel offers a summary of the reasons Peter wrote his second letter. “This final impassioned plea to grow in Christian maturity and guard against false teachers was precipitated by the fact that [Peter’s] time was short (1:13-15) and that these congregations faced immediate danger (2:1-3). He also desired to refresh their memories (1:13) and stimulate their thinking (3:1-2) so they would remember his teaching (1:15).... And he encouraged his readers with the certainty of Christ’s return (3:1-16).”

Peter had an important agenda in mind when he sent his Holy Spirit-inspired letter (see 1:21) to the church. Whether the apostle wrote 2 Peter himself or used a secretary is debated, but the message definitely reflects Peter’s life and character.

The intensity of the apostle’s message also reflects the threatening times his readers were facing. We believe that several years had passed since Peter wrote his first letter. During this period, persecution from those outside the church had apparently increased, and false teachers were doing all they could to destroy the church from within. This letter was Peter’s last opportunity to warn believers about these dangers.

Like his “dear brother Paul” (2 Peter 3:15), Peter considered himself first a servant, or slave, of Jesus Christ. That’s amazing humility, considering Peter’s position of leadership and authority in the early church.

Furthermore, Peter also knew his theology. Salvation is possible only through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which He gives us when we receive Him as Savior. This is the only way we can enjoy the “grace and peace” God has for those who trust Him.

But there’s more. Faith in Christ brings us all the power we need to live godly lives, all the promises God has made to His people, and the chance to participate in God’s own nature through the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We usually read a personal letter all the way through because we want to know what the writer has to say.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:5-9
Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge. - 2 Peter 1:5
TODAY IN THE WORD
Long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi of Finland was an Olympic champion, winning twelve medals (nine of them gold) in the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Games. Nurmi was famous not only for his achievements, but also for running with a stopwatch in his hand to check his performance.

It’s good to know how you’re doing along the way if you want to win a long-distance race. Peter would probably have liked Nurmi’s commitment to excellence. The apostle was determined to win his own race--the Christian race--and help other believers to do the same. Since we’re also in the same race, we need to pay close attention to Peter’s teaching.

To be successful in running the Christian race, we must understand at least two things: the obstacles we face and what it takes to complete the course. Second Peter also warns us about the false teachers who are always present to distort the truth and to distract the faithful.

But prior to that, the apostle explained how to live the kind of faithful lives that would allow believers to overcome the obstacles and to go the distance. One of 2 Peter’s purposes is to stress our need to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

Today’s reading, along with verses 10-11, shows the interplay between God’s work in us and our response to His work. We were reminded yesterday that salvation comes through the righteousness of Christ (v. 1), which is His gift to us. All we can do is receive salvation by faith. God’s power and promises are also gifts that we did nothing to earn.

At the same time, however, we are expected to do something with the grace we have received. Peter listed seven Christian virtues that we should expect to produce in our lives if we are growing in grace.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Paul also understood the balance between God’s work in us and our response to His work.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:10-15
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. - 2 Peter 1:10
TODAY IN THE WORD
David W. Folsom, author of the book Assets Unknown, estimates that there are over one trillion dollars worth of unclaimed property in the United States held in federal and state accounts, waiting to be claimed by the rightful owners. These assets include stocks and bonds, unclaimed pension and insurance benefits, and uncashed dividend checks.

This staggering figure illustrates the “high cost of forgetting what you own.” As Christians we are “co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17); we can’t afford to lose sight of what God is holding in store for us. For-getting spiritually costs more than forgetting financially.

Peter desired that his readers not forget what they learned. To the apostle, faith in Christ was far too “precious” (v. 1) to be allowed to slip away. The challenge for believers--then and now--is to make our “calling and election sure.” This entails both God’s choice of His own and His action in bringing His chosen ones to Himself.

Rather than forgetting who we are and where we have come from, we need to do the things that will spiritually strengthen us. In this way, we can guard ourselves against falling into temptation or believing the lies of the deceivers.

Peter knew these believers in Asia Minor were well-established in the faith. But he also realized how powerful the lure of false teaching would be for them, especially after he and the other apostles were gone.

This was a critical issue for Peter; when he wrote this letter he knew that he was not going to live much longer. Jesus had revealed this to the faithful disciple who had loved and served Him for so long. The Lord had predicted Peter’s martyrdom years earlier (John 21:18-19). Many historians believe that Peter was put to death in Rome shortly after 2 Peter was written.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Since we tend to have short spiritual memories, we need to be reminded of the truths we are to believe and to live by.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:16-21
We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it. - 2 Peter 1:19
TODAY IN THE WORD
The false religions and various “isms” that lead people astray contain a wide array of erroneous teachings. Most false teaching has enough shreds of truth to make it look attractive. But false religions distort either the Person or the work of Jesus Christ because they have a defective view of Scripture. So if we know the incarnate Word of God and the written Word of God, we can tell the truth from the lie.

When it comes to truth and error, things haven’t changed much since the early days of the faith. Peter was aware that the false teachers invading the church in his day would sow doubts about Jesus Christ, and would claim to have new revelations themselves. Peter addressed these false teachers directly in chapter 2, but first he wanted to ensure that believers were on solid ground concerning the basics of their faith.

The apostle was uniquely qualified to offer his personal testimony. He was one of only three people--James and John were the other two--who witnessed the transfiguration of Christ (Matt. 17:1-9). This was a pivotal event in divine history.

Peter mentioned the transfiguration in support of his teaching on Christ’s second coming, one of the truths about the Lord that false teachers and scoffers often deny (2 Peter 3:3-4). Moses and Elijah appeared at Jesus’ transfiguration, which represented the Old Testament’s witness to Christ and confirmed the truth of the prophets. The prophets revealed that Jesus Christ would return to establish His kingdom on earth.

The transfiguration also revealed Christ’s true glory in an unforgettable way for a brief few minutes. The Lord’s glory was a light shining on that dark mountain, and Peter heard the word of God from heaven, testifying to His Son’s identity. The apostle understood the message, and thus he urged his readers to pay the same close attention to God’s Word.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Peter was speaking primarily of the Old Testament when he referred to the inspired Word of God.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:1-3
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. - 1 John 4:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
One reason the U.S. government is redesigning the country’s paper currency is to reduce the problem of counterfeiting. The government has been trying to foil counterfeiters for years. Indeed, the ribbed edge on dimes and quarters, which is called “reeding,” was introduced years ago in part to prevent counterfeiting.

Why does our government have to work so hard to combat counterfeiting? Because counterfeiters are always among us, looking for opportunities to practice their deceptive trade. In this sense, counterfeiters are like the false prophets and teachers who are always present among God’s people, looking for opportunities to practice their deceit and counterfeits.

Peter addressed this problem in his second letter to the churches of Asia Minor. The ex-fisherman was a plain-spoken man, and he clearly stated how he felt about this problem. The next three days we’re going to read some straight talk about the scourge of people who disguise lies as the truth and who try to peddle these lies to the church. For example, consider the “sneakiness” of false teachers. They seldom announce their arrival. Instead, they secretly infiltrate.

Peter also discussed the true spiritual condition of these people. False teachers often claim to know the Lord, but their lives are a denial of Christ because they do not accept the salvation He accomplished for the human race on the cross. We need to remember that Christ’s death is sufficient for all people, although it is efficient, or effective, only for those who believe in Him.

Notice also the false teachers’ motives. They are greedy people who “exploit” believers. This is an interesting word that reveals that false teachers want to turn the church into an “emporium,” or a marketplace, for their own profit. As we consider today’s religious “marketplace,” it sounds very much like Peter’s day.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This is a sobering Scripture passage; for Peter, there was no dialogue to be had with spiritual deceivers.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:4-9
The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment. - 2 Peter 2:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
It’s sad but true that false religious leaders will always have a willing audience. “Many will follow their shameful ways,” Peter said (2 Peter 2:2). From a human standpoint, we can understand why. False teachers offer people a God who demands little and gives a lot, who isn’t mad at anyone but accepts anyone on any terms, who is easily pleased, and who wouldn’t even think of eternally punishing nice people for their little mistakes.

But the God of the deceivers isn’t the God of Scripture; consequently, deliberate spiritual deception is one of the cruelest sins a person could commit. Peter certainly didn’t have any tolerance for spiritual deceivers, and it’s clear from today’s reading that God doesn’t either.

Verses 4-9 are one long sentence in the original language, giving us a sense of the urgency Peter felt as he wrote. The people he described were already infiltrating the church and leading God’s people into sin. Peter knew he wasn’t going to be alive much longer (2 Peter 1:14), so he had to get this important message across.

The apostle’s argument is clear. God has always moved in history to preserve the righteous and to judge the unrighteous--whether people or angels--and He will certainly not fail to judge false teachers who prey on the church.

Almost as an aside, these verses provide some valuable insight into biblical history. The angels who sinned were sent to a place called tartarus in the original language.

Although the word is translated “hell,” this is not the eternal lake of fire referred to in Revelation. Rather this place is “gloomy dungeons” where this group of fallen angels is held in “everlasting chains” (Jude 6) awaiting judgment.

We’re also given insight into the heart of Lot, Abraham’s nephew who chose to live in evil Sodom. Lot barely escaped the destruction of Sodom, and paid dearly for allowing himself to live among such moral filth.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Isn’t it amazing how faithful God is to deliver those who trust in Him?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:10-22
The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. - 1 John 4:4
TODAY IN THE WORD
Ever since the day the apostle Paul warned the Ephe-sian elders that false teachers would attack the flock (Acts 20:28-37), these evil people have plagued the church. Thank the Lord for leaders such as Paul and his fellow apostle, Peter, who were faithful to warn God’s people of the danger.

We’ve been noticing that Peter spared no words to expose people who dressed like sheep and sneaked in among God’s flock to destroy people’s faith. Today, this danger is still with us.

In fact, the church today may even be more vulnerable to deception because the deceivers have become more polished and market-savvy. What are these people really like? Second Peter provides us with the answer.

First, false teachers are arrogant (2 Peter 2:10). We’re not sure if the “celestial beings” referred to are angels. The point seems to be that although even God’s powerful angels do not slander the false teachers, these arrogant people are not afraid to slander angels and blaspheme holy things.

Second, spiritual deceivers are ignorant of spiritual realities (2:12). Peter was not talking about well-intentioned, but misguided, people who don’t have their theology straight. False teachers don’t care about truth. Often, they toss in enough truth to confuse people, then twist and deny the remaining truth.

Third, false teachers are driven by the worst possible motives--lust and greed (2:14). Peter cited as an example the evil prophet Balaam, who agreed to curse Israel for money (Num. 22-25). God stopped him every time. Later, he paid for his greed with his life (Num. 31:.

Fourth and finally, false teachers can’t deliver on their own lies (2:17-19). They’re like the so-called sexual revolution of the 60s, which touted sexual freedom while enslaving people to their own lusts.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Reading passages like 2 Peter 2 should leave all of us more cautious and aware of the reality of spiritual deception in our own day.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:1-7
I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior. - 2 Peter 3:2
TODAY IN THE WORD
A recent cartoon depicts a man at his desk looking at a computer screen, while outside his open office window another man is flying past, having just jumped from the top of the building. The man at the desk says to the jumper, “Tough luck, Conners. The market has gone up 1,200 points since you jumped.”

So much for assuming that things will always be the way they are right now. As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change, and you would think that people would know better than to risk their eternal future on the assumption that nothing is going to change. But that’s exactly what doubters and skeptics have been doing since the earliest days of Christianity.

“Scoffers” choose to forget or ignore the fact that God has kept His word in history and will do so again. God judged the world in the flood of Noah, and the world is scheduled for judgment again when Christ returns.

The scoffers may deliberately forget, but Peter insisted on not forgetting God’s word. He called his second letter to the church a reminder (v. 1), and later said, “Do not forget” (v. . It’s interesting that the phrase translated “reminders to stimulate you” in verse 1 is the same in the original language as the phrase “refresh your memory” in 1:13.

By linking the teaching of the prophets and apostles (v. 2), Peter was invoking the true witnesses and authorities upon whose ministry the church is established (Eph. 2:20). Jesus was speaking to this later generation of believers through the apostles, among whom Peter was a powerful leader. Verse 2 provides evidence that Peter was keenly aware he wrote under divine inspiration.

If the need for evidence were the only issue for the doubters, it wouldn’t be hard to prove the validity of the Chris-tian faith. But just as false teachers have a hidden agenda, so do many skeptics. Peter said that they wanted to follow their evil desires, which would have been hard to do if they had let God’s Word get in the way.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Deliberate denial is one thing. But some people are honest seekers after truth (see John 9:35-38 for a good example).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:8-13
You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. - 2 Peter 3:11-12
TODAY IN THE WORD
Growing up in Ireland, Amy Carmichael desperately wanted blue eyes instead of the brown eyes she was born with. As a four-year-old girl, she even prayed eagerly that God would change her eye color. But years later, as a missionary in India, Amy saw the wisdom of God’s plan. When she learned that young girls were being sold to Hindu temples as prostitutes, Amy stained her skin with coffee grounds and dressed as an Indian to go into the temples and rescue the girls. As she dressed one day, Amy realized that her disguise only worked because she had brown eyes. Blue eyes would have betrayed her as a foreigner.

God knows exactly what He is doing even when His ways may not make sense to us. The scoffers who doubt God and ridicule His Word ignore several important facts that we as believers can’t afford to forget.

First, we need to remember that God doesn’t count time the way we do (v. . Years, decades, and millennia are immaterial to Him. This is im-portant to know because it will keep us from becoming impatient and losing our confidence in God’s promises while we wait for Christ’s return.

Peter made another application: while people may become impatient, God is incredibly patient with a sinful world (v. 9). The scoffers don’t even realize that God’s apparent delay in judging the world is for their benefit. Instead of taking God’s mercy for granted (v. 4), unbelievers should be taking this time God gives them to repent--especially since Christ will come without any warning.

If unbelievers should use their time preparing to meet the Lord, how should His people use their time? Doing the same thing! We should be getting ready to meet our Savior by becoming more and more like Him every day (v. 11). First John says we will see Jesus “as he is” (1 John 3:2), and 2 Peter says we should look as much like Jesus as possible by the time He comes back.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
As we said a few days ago, Peter wanted to help Christians remember the essentials that will keep us on track spiritually.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:14-18
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. - 2 Peter 3:18
TODAY IN THE WORD
Pastor and author A. W. Tozer observed this about the early church: “Conversion for the early Christians was not a destination; it was the beginning of a journey.... In [the early church] faith was for each believer a beginning, not a bed in which to lie while waiting for the Lord’s triumph. Believing was not a once-done act. It was an attitude of heart and mind which inspired and enabled the believer to follow the Lord wherever He went.”

Since the Christian life is a journey that begins the day we receive Christ as Savior, how well we follow Christ after conversion is vital to our spiritual well-being. Peter’s final instruction to his readers, and to the church, centered on the importance of a believer’s continued growth in the faith.

The great thing about our journey of faith is that we’re going somewhere. We are looking forward to Christ’s return, His ultimate victory, and His new creation. That hope should make a difference in how we live today, motivating us to be holy and blameless before God.

Peter also expressed once more his concern that Chris-tians resist the deception of the devil and his false teachers. Our best protection against deceit is God’s Word, which Peter believed included those letters of his “dear brother Paul” (v. 15), which apparently were well-known at the time.

There’s no way to know for sure how many of Paul’s letters Peter was referring to, but it’s important to see that Peter linked these writings with “the other Scriptures” (v. 16), the Old Testament. Peter wouldn’t have said this lightly.

This is a valuable apostolic witness to the inspiration of the books that would make up a good part of the New Testament. We believe Peter was also aware that he wrote under the Holy Spirit’s direction, so his statement about Paul’s letters carries even more weight.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In the June 1 study, we encouraged you to commit a problem to the Lord and ask Him for the strength to overcome it.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 3:1-15
When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. - Galatians 4:4
TODAY IN THE WORD
In The Best Is Yet to Come, Dr. Tony Evans writes, “When God speaks, His power is such that His words will never fail to come to pass.... He has the power to keep every promise He makes. In fact, when God makes a promise it’s as good as done, because in His mind it is already done. You see, God speaks from the perspective of eternity, not of time.”

That encouraging remin-der of God’s faithfulness helps to set the stage for our studies this month. Beginning with the story of mankind’s sin, we will see how God made, and then fulfilled throughout biblical history, His wonderful promise to deal with sin through the coming of a Savior. In this study, we will follow an incredible line of succession that began with the birth of Seth in Genesis 4 and culminated in the coming of Jesus Christ, “who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Without a doubt, tracing the lineage of Jesus Christ through the Old Testament is a fascinating journey. Along the way we will meet biblical patriarchs, and stop off for a while in the period of the judges.

Next we will look at David and a succession of kings in his line who bring the story to the end of the Old Testament and anticipate Christ’s birth. God preserved the line of Christ through all kinds of crises and all kinds of people, both godly and evil.

God’s first promise of a Savior brought hope in the middle of the worst possible situation, the entry of sin into the world as described in Genesis 3. Satan’s deception of Eve, and Adam’s willing cooperation in disobeying God’s command, left the pair hiding from God in fear and guilt (vv. 8-10).

Adam and Eve ran from God because of shame over their physical nakedness. But that shame was only the outward manifestation of their spiritual nakedness and exposure to a holy God. Imagine the futility and terror of actually trying to avoid the gaze of God! This is what Adam and Eve tried to do as they cowered in the garden.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Studying people is fascinating, so we hope you’ll enjoy this month’s lessons on some of the great, and not so great, people in the Scriptures.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 4:1-12, 25-26
Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave. - 1 Kings 8:56
TODAY IN THE WORD
In 1948, Dr. Thomas Weller and his colleagues at the Harvard Medical School were conducting experiments in an attempt to grow the virus that causes chicken pox. But the chicken pox virus was stubborn, refusing to grow at all. As an afterthought, Weller put another virus sample into the flasks, a leftover scrap of the polio virus. To Weller’s astonishment, it flourished. A brief report giving the formula for growing polio viruses appeared in the January 1949 edition of the Science journal.

Researchers could now grow large amounts of the virus for vaccine experiments against polio, which crippled 42,000 American children in 1949 alone. Within a decade after Thomas Weller’s failed chicken pox experiment, the dreaded disease polio was brought under control.

Thomas Weller’s experience reminds us how victory can come out of seeming defeat. This is true in the spiritual realm too. God specializes in bringing His good purposes out of what appears to be sure defeat. We have a great example of that in today’s passage about the death of Abel and the birth of Seth.

We need to read the story of Cain and Abel in context of God’s judgments in Genesis 3. The promise of a righteous “offspring” (Gen. 3:15) who would crush Satan was addressed to the evil serpent. God also said there would be constant hostility between His offspring and the children of Satan.

God’s promise meant Satan’s eternal defeat. But since our enemy has always been consumed by fierce, if ultimately futile, hostility toward God, he was determined to frustrate God’s plan. The birth of Abel, whom Jesus called righteous (Matt. 23:35), signaled that God had established the line that would one day result in Satan’s crushing defeat. Consequently, the devil went into action.

He put it into the heart of unrighteous Cain, angry over God’s rejection, to do the unthinkable. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy, but behind this murder was Satan’s first attempt to destroy the godly line at its very source.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God still delights in taking hard circumstances, even what seems like a defeat, and bringing about good according to His purpose.